Fire destroys Greenville family’s home

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer
    GREENVILLE — A fast-moving fire leveled the home of a Greenville couple on April 8 evening while they were visiting family members in Massachusetts.
    The log home was owned by Everard Hayes and Judy Hayes.

    Fire Chief Matt St. Laurent said that the call came in from the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department communications center at 10:22 p.m. and they battled the blaze for nearly three hours.  “Pretty much everything is gone,” St. Laurent said. “Scott Richardson from the State Fire Marshall’s office was at the scene Thursday morning and he’ll try to determine the cause.”
    Town Manager and firefighter John Simko said that the family’s St. Bernard dog escaped injury. “We were hosing down the basement area when he came running out of the woods,” Simko said.
    Hayes’ daughter, Erica-Everard Hayes, has started a GoFundMe account to assist the family and nearly $2,100 had been raised as of noon Monday. The couple has three children, two stepchildren and six grandchildren.
     “They have spent so much of their lives helping others and now could use our help,” Erica-Everard Hayes wrote on her Facebook page. “We spent some time with them over the weekend (and) they are exhausted and overwhelmed. Every conversation seems to yield a memory about something they lost in the fire.”
    Everard Hayes is also a firefighter, part-time police officer and president of the Moosehead Lake Region Chamber of Commerce board of directors.